Conner's Blog

My parents were in town from Wednesday until Tuesday recently.  We did a ton of activities around the Twin Cities, these posts are my recap of the events.  I hope that they inspire you to explore your city whether you live in Minneapolis, St. Paul, or anywhere else.

My parents flew in the afternoon on Wednesday and we didn’t do much after they arrived.  We ate supper at my apartment and then wandered down Nicollet mall, stopping at Brit’s Pub for a beer.  The following morning we woke up and headed out the door to check out Como zoo.  If you haven’t been to Como zoo, you should really take the time to check it out.  I’ve been there three times since moving to Minnesota and have had a great time all three times.  I recommend going there in the summer and the winter every year.  It may seem strange to recommend a zoo in Winter, but if you go on a fairly warm day, you may get to see tigers playing in the snow.  Additionally, the arboretum is a wonderful place to soak up some humid air.

After spending the morning into the early afternoon at Como, we ended up grabbing dinner and walking to the Walker Art Museum.  We walked through the Quick and The Dead exhibit and then wandered out to the lawn to catch a bit of Solid Gold’s performance.  It was good start to the week and included two free attractions in one day.

Things are progressing nicely on my MN todo list.  Last night I was able to visit the Walker and had a great time.  Thursday nights are free at the Walker.  It’s also the only weekday with extended hours.  The initial plan was to visit the Garden of Metamorphosis.  I had seen a posting for a tour that was going to be given that night.  Apparently, I can’t read and the tour was for another night, because it wasn’t happening yesterday.  Instead we visited the Books by Artists exhibit which did contain a guided tour.

There were a lot of very interesting pieces in this show.  I’m not much of an art enthusiast so though I really enjoyed the show, I couldn’t tell you much about any individual pieces.  I thought it was a very thought provoking exhibit that shows that stories can be told in many different ways.  Unfortunately, the tour that was happening while I was browsing the exhibit was not great.  Though some of the content was very intriguing, the presentation itself was very dry and none of the presenters seemed excited to be there.  It did add some value to the exhibit, but not as much as I would have hoped.

I walked away with a very good impression of the Walker.  It’s a gorgeous building that is much larger than it looks from the outside.  I will definitely be back and will probably spend more time exploring all the exhibits instead of sticking to just one.  I definitely recommend checking it out if you have the time on a Thursday evening.